The Development of Alternative Crops

2. The development of alternative crops

Alternative crops were the other crops in the colonies. The list consisted
of the other crops that were grown in the colonies after emancipation.
They were grown mainly by peasant farmers.These crops included
limes, banana, rice, coffee, cotton, cocoa, nutmeg and coconuts.

Introduction

Economic/agricultural diversification began even during the slavery and
sugar period because slaves grew other crops on their plots on the
plantations either for their families to consume or to sell in the Sunday
markets. When slaves were emancipated in 1838, the now free men
wanted to get as far away from the plantations for the most part so many
of them decided to become independent peasant farmers and cultivate
crops to make a living.

The diversification process was further pushed by the abandonment of
sugar cultivation on some estates. On such estates, some planters
began to focus on new crops which required less labour. Some planters
would also sell or rent land to peasant farmers who wanted to cultivate
other crops.

Several features of agricultural/economic diversification should be
considered;

 Mostly peasant farmers practiced the cultivation of
alternative crops. The peasants had increased independence as a result of
their cultivation of alternative crops. They were able to exist on the earnings
from the crops as many were seasonal and as such they were always able
to reap a crop. There was a ready market both locally and overseas for
several of the crops, such as banana, coffee and coconuts. The peasants
were able to rely less on estate work. This also made them more
independent.

The peasants were very instrumental in making crops such as banana
important exports. In colonies such as Jamaica, bananas were able to
become chief revenue earners, putting sugar into the second place. The
peasant activities in Trinidad and Guyana also saw crops such as rice
becoming vital to the economies.

 The majority of planters continues to cultivate sugar cane.
 Some planters in some colonies decided to grow alternative
crops.

The planters recognized the profitability of the alternative crops. Planters
had long looked at the banana industry with distaste. However when the
United Fruit Company started its own banana estates, planters recognized
the value of the crop. Some planters even stopped planting sugar cane in
order to plant banana and coconuts. The sugar estates that had been
unprofitable found that this was a very good alternative.
The crops

Banana

The crop was planted by peasants but became important as an export
commodity in Jamaica after 1869 when the first load of bananas was
carried to the U.S. Many planters who had abandoned sugar cane in the
1880's started to cultivate bananas for export. In 1893, 113 estates
cultivated bananas. By 1912, bananas, oranges and grapefruits made
up about 56% of export earnings for that year while sugar made up only
6% of export earnings. The banana industry was greatly helped by the
fact that the United Fruit Company also had banana estates and also
bought the fruit from peasant producers.

Coffee, pimento, ginger, logwood

These crops were cultivated in small amounts by the peasants for
exports in Jamaica. Coffee was also cultivated in Grenada.

Cotton

Owing to the high cotton prices during the American Civil War (1861-65),
cotton was grown again with success in Tobago, Grenada, St Lucia,
Antigua and Nevis but with the end of the war and the return of low
priced American cotton, production soon fell away again. The cotton of
St Vincent was of particularly good quality.

Cocoa

Cocoa was grown extensively in Trinidad and Grenada and produced in
smaller quantities in Jamaica , St Lucia and Dominica. In Grenada it
completely replaced sugar cane.

Citrus

Citrus such as lime, grapefruit, oranges, limes replaces sugarcane in
Dominica and was encouraged in St. Lucia and Montserrat for making
time juice. In Jamaica oranges and grapefruits were cultivated by
peasants for exports and up to 1912 made up over 50%of export
earnings including banana.

Spices such as nutmeg

Nutmeg was planted extensively in Grenada. The island became known
as the spice island. Nutmeg production was however not to reach the
important levels of production as elsewhere in the world.

Rice

Rice was produced in large quantities in Guyana and to a lesser extent
In Trinidad and Jamaica by East Indian peasants. It was first grown for
domestic consumption locally in Guyana but later it was produced in
sufficient quantities to support an export market. In 1889, Guyana had
imported 24,000 lbs of rice and exported none; but in 1913,only 13,00-
lbs was imported and a huge 17,000,000 lbs was exported. In time, rice
production became the second largest agricultural industry in Guyana.

Arrowroot

In St Vincent, arrowroot replaces sugarcane as the primary crop.

Coconut

Grown in most colonies for copra and oilmaking. In Trinidad the high
prices obtained for coconuts between 1918 and 1921 encouraged
coconut cultivation to increase.

Forestry

In the mainland colonies of Guyana and Belize, huge forests existed and
though a wide variety of timbers is found in each country the green heart
trees of Guyana and mahogany of Belize are world famous. For some
time, mainly to satisfy war time demands, Trinidad and Guyana
experimented with rubber production but this stopped due to competition
from Asian countries.

(Past paper question and answer)

Why were alternative crops able to increase production between 1838
and 1918?

There was an increase in the world demand for several of the alternative
crops and this helped to increase production. Crops such as banana,
coffee, cocoa and rice were being demanded in large markets such as
North America and England. Therefore there was a high price for several
of these crops as many were willing to pay top dollar to obtain them.

These crops were labour intensive and so production required little
equipment and sometimes even small acreages of land could be used to
plant them. The production of bananas is an example. The peasants
grew bananas on much less than an acre, yet the yield (amount of crops
produced) was large.

There was no need for a lot of oney to be pumped into the production of
these crops. Therefore little capital was required to start production. It
was enough to have whatever fertile soil was available and good
drainage as well as a few labourers. In fact a peasant farmer and the
family was sometimes the only labour force on plots that grew these
alternative crops.

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2. The development of alternative crops

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